If It Helps
by Oceans in Hand
Summary: After Inuyasha chooses Kikyou for a third time, Kagome disappears into the woods and unwittingly into the middle of a vicious storm. SessKag if you squint, oneshot.


**Yay something new! Mmk, the summary said very slight SessKag, and so if is! There is no kissing or anything like that (I suck at smut), but it _can _be considered a pairing fic if you want to. But it won't make you sick if you despise those two together. **

**Originally this fic was going to be named after a piece of SK fanart called _In The Rain, _but the other 3 letter title fits it better. I _do _advise you to go look up the piece. Search deviantArt for (in the rain) and it should be on the first page. The artist is Technoelfie : ) **

**Hope you like it! **

**-Oceans **

**IT'S FINALLY BEEN EDITED PEOPLE!!!!**

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**If It Helps**

"Inuyasha! You-you…treacherous…infuriating…_dog!" _Kagome shrieked, her voice rising. "_How could you do this to me again?!" _She sucked in a noisy gulp of air and plunked down on a mossy stump. Kagome hiccupped and glared at the scenery around her.

She had escaped into the woods that ringed Kaede's village. The sky grumbled threateningly, dark clouds swollen and heavy with water and blocking the afternoon sun. Wind blew through the trees, whistling, the branches reaching after it forlornly. Leaves swirled up in mini cycles.

Kagome propped her head on her arm, sighing through her nose. Her anger was deserting her much too early. She wasn't finished insulting the hanyou yet!

"How could he do this to me again?" She repeated, quietly, her voice ringing with defeat. "I'm alive, for one thing…Kikyou has put him through so much…how…?" An angry rumble came from overhead. Kagome ignored it.

"…I guess that's just love."

She heard thunder from far off. Kagome glanced up at the sky with an almost bored expression coloring her features. She stretched her legs in front of her, straining until she heard a pop and felt a little relief, and leaned back onto her hands. The wind was bending the trees at alarming angles.

"He didn't even follow me like last time."

_I thought I was winning him. I _thought _he was starting to want _me _over _her. _Was it wishful thinking? It must have been!_

Kagome's eyes crinkled, misty with furious tears. _What I wouldn't give for someone to love me like that…_

There was a sudden flash to her right. Kagome looked toward it in time to see a spit of lightning withdrawing into the dark clouds. "Uh oh…"

She hadn't even seen the storm! Kagome stood and circled to collect the signs she had previously overlooked. The wind…the clouds…the-

Thunder, loud and sounding like a dragon's jowls snapping shut reverberated off the trees. Kagome jumped and hugged herself, brown, watery eyes wide and fearful. Another stab of lightning, a closely following boom and a cruel, resounding crack, and the bottom fell out. The girl shrieked and ran for the meager shelter offered by the trees. The rain that fell was hard and heavy, plastering the glass flat and parallel with the soil. The wind howled from her back and blew the rain in horizontal sheets. Kagome slapped her palms to her ears and screamed, sinking to her knees and bending over her lap.

She didn't like storms.

--//--

Sango stared at the roof of Kaede's home as though she could see through it if she tried hard enough. Miroku stood close at her side, an arm protectively around her shoulders. "Kagome is out it this…" His tone was anxious and worried. He half turned. "Inuyasha!"

The hanyou was pressed back into a corner. The dog ears on his head were pressed flat to his skull, his pointed teeth bared.

Sango broke off her staring match and threw an arm towards him. "Inuyasha! Go look for her!"

"I can't." He replied almost piteously, avoiding her eyes. "I'm the last person she wants to see right now."

"Be that as it may, she cannot stay out it this." Mirkou said firmly.

Inuyasha shook his head and hid his eyes. His demeanor reeked of self-loathing. "She won't die…"

"You!"

--//--

"This is an awfully bad storm, Master Jaken. Sesshomaru-sama won't catch a cold will he?" Rin asked. Her eyes searched for the tall white figure.

Jaken snapped his beak-nose irritably. "Our Lord? Catch a mere _cold? _Do not make me laugh, wretch." He answered in his standoffish manner, but he was searching just as hard. Rin saw this and sighed.

"Silly Master Jaken."

--//--

_She is far too frail to be out in such weather. Inuyasha had better care more for his human. _Sesshoumaru frowned, watching the quivering figure curled in on itself on the forest floor. The girl was in great distress, the pungent stench of fear forming a kind of aura that caged her. He knelt beside her head, the sounds of his approach lost in the wails of the storm, and rested a clawed hand on her back. "Why are you not with my brother?"

Kagome flinched at the touch, or the words or more likely both. She peered through her fingers but otherwise didn't move. She was paralyzed, Such a storm _couldn't_ be natural!

Sesshomaru was not typically a patient individual, but he instinctually sought to relieve the girl.

Such instincts had not existed before meeting Rin.

He repeated the question.

Kagome cringed at a rumble of thunder. "W-we got into a fight. I d-didn't notice the storm un-until." Another flinch. "It was on m-me."

He was unimpressed. "That was a very foolish thing to do."

"I-I-I realize that now." She attempted a smile, but it turned to a grimace when a flash of bleached light fell over them.

Sesshomaru cocked an eyebrow at her and looked up, craning his neck to see through the treetops. His nostrils flared as he inhaled.

"Good news?" Kagome joked feebly. She knew Inuyasha could tell amazing things with his sense of smell, and she also knew that his brother's was more developed.

"As a matter of fact…"

And just like that the battering rain slowed to a medium strength drizzle. A last bolt of lightning materialized, and the storm was over.

Kagome cautiously released her hug on her knees and stood shakily. Wringing water from her hair, she stepped out from beneath that trees and climbed onto the stump. "Huh. What do you know?" She tilted her neck back and squint her eyes against the rain. Water collected on her upturned face, falling down her checks and into the collar of her school uniform in fat drops. She refocused her gaze and laughed when her wet bangs completely obscured her vision. She pulled the handkerchief from her shirt and bound them back.

Kagome spun once on the stump and stopped facing Sesshomaru. She bowed, smiling happily. "Thank you," She said sincerely.

He was almost smiling, the corner of his mouth quirked the tiniest bit up. "For what?"

"I dunno," Kagome teetered on her toes. "Talking to me? Expressing concern?"

"'Expressing concern?'"

"Is that what were you doing?" She glanced up.

His reply was instant. "No." _Sesshomaru does not_ express concern

Kagome smiled. "Okay then."

He huffed and turned to go- but one thing was still… "Girl,"

Unanswered.

"Kagome," She corrected him.

Sesshomaru ignored her. "What was your argument of?"

"I don't think that's really any of your business…" She frowned.

He opened his mouth-

"But…Well. You know Kikyou, right?"

Sesshomaru nodded. He turned back to fully face the girl. Standing on the stump, he was forced to look up to face her.

She tapped her foot thoughtfully. "Inuyasha still loves her. Two times before now," She thrust out two fingers. "He has chosen her over me. It hurts, really _bad. _Especially because she's _dead, _and she's done nothing but case him pain." Kagome rotated slowly as she spoke. She watched her feet as she clapped her ankles together. "I've done _nothing, _but stay by his side. And yet he…?" She stopped and straightened, looking over her shoulder at the youkai. "Why does he do that?"

Sesshomaru shrugged. "How am I to understand my brother's reasoning?"

Kagome nodded once firmly and started circling again. "Well, as I said he's done it twice. Yesterday he did it again. And...at first I reacted the same way I did the other two times…but then he….he _said something _that made me really angry, and that's when I ran off. Into a storm." Kagome rolled her eyes at her own negligence.

Sighing, she lowered her body to sit on the stump, her legs not quite touching the ground. She kicked her feet and bounced her heels off the thin bark. He couldn't be sure because of the water trickling from her wet hair, but she seemed to be crying. Kagome looked up suddenly, locking eyes with him. Her eyes were misted accordingly.

"Do you think he knows how badly it hurts?" She asked miserably.

Sesshomaru looked off to the side to avoid that unhappy gaze. "He must understand that it makes you unhappy." Where were these words coming from? "But he is stubborn enough and loyal enough to return to the dead miko. Regardless of the way she has treated him."

Kagome's eyes crinkled. "Am I that bad?"

"If it helps," He spoke in a measured voice, slowly turning his head to look at her. "I favor you over his previous mate."

Her eyes widened to the size of plums, but she hurriedly blinked them back to normal proportions, blushing lightly. "It helps."

He nodded curtly.

"_Kagome!"_

Sesshomaru's body angled to the source of the voice. _How did they get so close without my knowing?_

Kagome jumped. "Sango! I'm here! Sessho-" She looked back.

He was gone.

Kagome frowned and scanned the forest halfheartedly as the demon hunter emerged from the opposite side at run and hugged her. "Kagome! Are you alright?"

She smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine Sango."

The hunter pulled back to meet her eyes. "Kagome, Inuyasha is sorry. You know he is, right?"

Kagome glanced at the spot where Sesshomaru had been standing a scant minute before and back to her friend. "I know."


End file.
